Review Fix Exclusive: City of Auburn’s Michael Osborn Talks ‘In Waiting’ And More 

Review Fix chats with City of Auburn’s Michael Osborn, who discusses the band’s origin, standout track “In Waiting” and goals for 2016. With a full-length album on the way, they’ve got a bright future ahead of them.

Review Fix: How did the band get together?

Michael Osborn: City of Auburn started off as a solo-project, but I really wanted to push the project forward and I knew I couldn’t do what I wanted alone. I’ve been in a couple of bands previous to this, and I developed a lot of good friendships along the way. I ended up having a lineup already laid out for me. We’ve just been jamming ever since.

Review Fix: What’s your creative process like?

Osborn: Usually it’s goes one of two ways, it’s either I’ll have an idea stuck in my head and I’ll hash it out on guitar, or I’ll already be on an instrument playing around until I like something. Everything starts pretty small. As far as the lyrics go, I try to keep things in an album perspective, meaning that I try to make the album that’s pretty much surrounded by a certain idea or concept but still having every song still have its own identity. It’s becomes pretty personal, because you have to put a piece of yourself in each part.

Review Fix: What’s your standout song? How was it written?

Osborn: I think a song we have that can grab people’s attention is our single ‘In Waiting.’ We have a music video for it, and it’s also the opener track on our EP Soul Searcher. Funny thing is, that track actually wasn’t supposed to make the album, in fact it wasn’t even written. I had a completely different song that was planned to be the opener, but looking at the flow of the other songs I realized that this song didn’t have a place on the album at all. It was so different and it just was a complete oddball to the rest. Recording was literally the next week and I dropped the song from the album. I started freaking out because I needed an opener track but had no ideas at all and it had to be done in less than a week. I was driving to work and I was so stressed about it that I literally started praying to God that he’d provide me another song. I think it was about halfway through my set, all these lyrics started filling my head. I jotted them down and it only took me a few minutes. When I got home at midnight, all the music came to me as well. I finalized everything the next day and what I wrote in that day is what was on the album. It ended up being the single and now it’s the song we open with live. It was such an answer to prayer.

Review Fix: What are your goals for 2016?

Osborn: We’re recording a new album, and I’d like to get it released around September. At least that’s the plan. Definitely want to do some tours, plan some music videos, and start to do plan the next album. Lots and lots of cool things to come for sure.

Review Fix: How do you want your music to affect people?

Osborn: I want to be real with people. I think transparency is something that’s kind of lost in some music nowadays. I just want people to listen to what we do and see honesty, and to truly see our hearts. I think people are going to walk away with something new. I want to bring something new to the table.

Review Fix: What’s next?

Osborn: Be on the lookout for our debut full-length album later this year. We’re going to do some tours and we might just visit where you are. I’m open to anything at all


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About Patrick Hickey Jr. 14230 Articles
Patrick Hickey Jr. is a full-time Assistant Professor of Communication & Performing Arts and Director of the Journalism program at Kingsborough Community College and is the chairman of the City University of New York Journalism Council. He is the Founder and Editor-In-Chief of ReviewFix.com. He's also a former News Editor at NBC Local Integrated Media and National Video Games Writer at Examiner.com where his work was mentioned in National Ad campaigns by Disney, Nintendo and EA Sports. Hickey was also the Editor-In-Chief of two College Newspapers before he received his BA in Journalism from Brooklyn College. Hickey's work has been published in The New York Daily News, The New York Times, Complex, The Hockey Writers, Yahoo!, Broadway World, Examiner, NYSportScene Magazine, ProHockeyNews.com, GothamBaseball.com, The Syracuse Post-Standard, Scout.com and the official sites of the Brooklyn Aces and New York Islanders. His first book, The Minds Behind the Games: Interviews With Cult And Classic Video Game Developers was released in April 2018 and is chock full of interviews with legendary developers. His second book in the series, The Minds Behind Adventures Games, was released in December 2019. His third book, The Minds Behind Sports Games, was released in September 2020. His fourth book, The Minds Behind Shooter Games, was released in March 2021. The Minds Behind Sega Genesis Games and The Minds Behind PlayStation Games were released in 2022 and The Minds Behind PlayStation 2 was published in January 2023. Hickey is also a contracted comic book writer, currently penning his original series, "Condrey," as well as "The Job," "Brooklyn Bleeds" "Dem Gulls" and "KROOM" for Legacy Comix, where he serves as founder, owner and Editor-in-Chief. Hickey Jr. is also a voice actor, having starred in the 2018 indie hit and 2019 Switch, PS4 and Xbox One release, The Padre (also serving as English language Story Editor), from Shotgun With Glitters. The sequel, The Padre: One Shell Straight to Hell was released in February 2021- Hickey also served as a Story Editor and Lead Voiceover performer. He has also done narration and trailers for several other titles including The Kaiju Offensive, Relentless Rex and Roniu’s Tale. Hickey is also the lead voiceover performer on Mega Cat Studios’ upcoming title WrestleQuest, responsible for nearly 90 characters in the game, as well as Skybound's Renfield: Bring Your Own Blood, where he voices both Dracula and Renfield, as well as several other characters. He also stars in Ziggurat Interactive’s World Championship Boxing Manager 2, where he performs the VO of nearly every male character in the game. He also worked on the Atari VCS’s BPM Boy.

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